Under the auspices of the Rural Education Department, there is a program especially for pupils of Ethiopian origin, called: “Kol Talmid Beit Sefer”. This is a pilot program, and does not include ALL of the schools that have pupils of Ethiopian origin (in fact, only 12 schools are participating). However there are many other schools in the Minhal who are dealing with issues that arise from working with this population, and, rather than have each school reinvent the wheel, regardless of whether they are a part of the program or not, this will be the place on REED where you will be able to share the materials you have made and found to be appropriate in dealing with these pupils.
Pupils who are new immigrants from Ethiopia come from very different backgrounds than most of our pupils. Their world knowledge is often very different than that which we assume the typical Israeli pupils have. It is a known fact that, in order for learning to occur, we must rely on prior knowledge on which to build new knowledge. This is especially important when teaching a foreign language. Trying to have pupil do a performance based task on planning a vacation for their families, when that pupil has never been on a vacation in their lives – with or without their families – is like asking your typical EFL teacher to learn to pilot a spaceship. The majority of us would not have enough previous relevant knowledge (aviation? physics?) to get 10 meters – let alone hundreds of kilometers – off the ground.
This area of the site will include activities that you have found to be relevant – whether they come from a specific book, or are activities that you developed or took off of the internet – if you used it, and found it to be appropriate, please share. And then come back and find treasures that YOU will be able to use.
Suggestions for using folktales